Holy Father, you’re coming to Kenya, Africa in troubled times, pray for us

NAIROBI: Holy Father, Pope Francis. Welcome to Kenya, this beautiful land of contrasts. Many years ago, the fathers of our independence coined the notion of “land of contrasts,” to capture and express our diversity.

Our national landscape defines our diversity. From our scenic beaches and coastal lowlands through the Eastern plains, to the Central Highlands, the Great Rift Valley, all the way to the magnificent Lake Basin, we salute you. Welcome to our verdant lush terrain with pristine forests and sprawling water bodies with both fresh and saline waters.

We are the home of global world beaters. We are renowned for breaking one sporting record after the other. We now don’t even remember some of the names and records. They are far too many for us to recall. Beating the world in athletics is now like oxygen to us. We are used to the sound of our national anthem everywhere there is an athletic event. And we thank God. Besides, we are also the land of amazing wildlife. You should see our game in migration. The wildebeest and sundry bovines are in the lead. Their predators come in tow! I need not say anything about our snowcapped Mt Kenya, our plateaus and the rest of our stunning landscape, blessed with a friendly tropical climate. It is summer throughout the year in our country.

Our national landscape also defines us along some 42 or so African tribes. We also have brothers and sisters of Indo-European descent to complete our human diversity. And this is the crown of our problems—for we have lots of problems in this beautiful land. Our tribes hate one another with amazing passion. We have willingly stagnated in these wild passions, courtesy of tribal cabals of political leadership.

But I run ahead of myself. Allow me first to thank the Catholic fraternity in the country for giving us some of the best schools and even hospitals in the country. Besides, let me hail the ecumenical character of these institutions and their nurturing of our youth and growing them into wonderful people, without any denominational discrimination whatsoever. Let me declare that I am not Catholic myself, for in this country, they are going to accuse me of “heaping praise on my church.”

I belong to the Anglican Church of Kenya. My family and I have, however, benefited manifestly from outstanding Catholic schools, ranging from Lugulu, Misikhu, St Peter’s and St Mary’s Mumias and Cardinal Otunga in West Kenya, all the way to St Mary’s School, Strathmore and the Kianda School in Nairobi. We are humbled by what these Catholic schools have done for us and for tens of thousands of other Kenyans over the years. We pray for continued nurturing of our youth in your schools.

Holy Father, you have come to our country and continent in troubled times. We are hungry, sick and poor in the main. But as the land of contrasts, this goes on side by side with massive wealth in isolated pockets, usually those of our leaders. They have their hands all over the place in the national till. But we are not supposed to talk about it. If we do, Cabinet Secretaries arrest us. They tell us that they are going to fry us.

Here in Kenya, the poor people are smarting under a massive weight of theft in the public service. We cannot account for close to 30 per cent of public revenue. We read every day of stolen hundreds of millions of shillings. Sometimes we even hear of lost billions of shillings. When we ask for people to make way for investigation, political leaders engage us in public displays of anger and deafening tantrums. They tell us not to teach them how to do their work. We don’t know, Holy Father, whether their work is to protect the suspects.

You have advised us to stand firm and not to be afraid. This is a message we can resonate with. Everywhere in Africa, the political leadership kills us for sport. They are latter day Aeschylus, the king of immortals. They are above the law. No court can touch them. Even when we run for safety into church buildings in Kigali and Eldoret, they set the house of God on fire, or descend upon us with machetes, in the very house of God. We must be firm and unafraid to face them.

You will be visiting Kampala after Nairobi. In a gone age, Winston Churchill described her as the Pearl of Africa. The pearl belied the martyrdom of 45 Christian youth under Kabaka Mwanga in 1885–1887. Today Kampala is the home of a new kind of martyr. Ambassadors of peace and heralds of the truth meet death in the streets of this slum town. The journalist is an endangered species. Only this week, a woman was veritably violated and an unarmed male journalist shot dead in these streets. Their sin was to attempt to bring to the world images of a draconian regime denying the political opposition the opportunity to hold a lawful public campaign ahead of “democratic” elections.

You will meet some of the leaders behind Africa’s mayhem in Nairobi and Kampala. They will affect piety. They will approach the altar with clasped palms, histrionic footsteps and convoluted oblations. They will kneel down and close their eyes. After you are gone, they will open their eyes and use your visit as an endorsement of the vile things that they do. They will justify themselves and beat their chests because, in their view, you have given them a clean bill of health. They will use their coming into proximity with you to visit more mayhem on the people.

Pray for the desolate citizens of Africa, Holy Father. Pray for the soul of the Ugandan photojournalist who was killed in the streets of Kampala this week. Pray for the souls of 1,337 Kenyans who died in political violence in 2007–2008. Our political class only prays for the suspects, at angry tribal prayer meetings. But pray for the suspects, too, that they may not be condemned if they are innocent. Pray for justice in Kenya, Holy Father. Pray for African leaders that they may dialogue with their soul. Pray also for those who have no soul to dialogue with. May God bestow them with a soul they can dialogue with. Pray for those whose soul has been replaced with that of strange creatures that they may be restored to a Godly human soul that understands the folly of stealing what you can never finish eating, even if you lived for a thousand years.

Holy Father, pray also for a lost African population and against zombification of the people. Pray that we may wake up from the stupor of worshipping tribal political leaders where we should worship God. Pray for the lost African scholar, kowtowing before the reptile of State. Pray for the lost prelate who shouts prayers that God will never listen to. Lumen Mundi, Light of the World, pray for Kenya. Lacrimae Christi, Tears of Christ, cry for the restoration of Kenya. Pray for Africa. In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.